Introduction

VA does not imply a Fatalistic Vision of Life

Interestingly, contrary to our possible misconception of Vedic astrology implying some fatalistic vision of life, in which man is ever at the mercy of his irrevocable ‘destiny’; it offers us a series of intelligent Remedial Measures in the form of daily charities, prayers, worship of certain prescribed Devatas[Deities], and the uninterrupted wearing of sacred objects on our bodies, such as ‘Kavachs‘ or ‘Yantras‘, as the means & mechanism of surmounting all the varied ‘karmic-obstacles’, which may be part of our ‘destiny’.

This seemingly ‘inconceivable’ but nonetheless very desirable goal is achieved by modifying the ‘karmic-effects’ of the cosmic forces that are shaping our ‘destiny’, through the reciprocal-impact on our ‘destiny’ of these Spiritual Remedial Measures. In this way, the resultant ‘karmic-effects’ of the cosmic forces are made more favourable for the fulfilment of our endeavours in every sphere of our life. This in a nutshell is what Vedic astrology all about.

Its origins lie in the insights and spiritual-illuminations that its wise progenitors -the Vedic Rishis [Sages] had, at a time when their spiritual-culture was in its heyday, some five to nine thousands years ago [2, 3]. Thus it may be traced back to its source, the Vedas, the oldest corpus of spiritual and mystical-literature of the world [2, 3, 4]. For the present, by ‘Vedic‘, we may understand ‘spiritual-knowing’ or ‘spiritual-learning’, such as what must have transpired in the ‘pure-consciousness’ of the Vedic Rishis.

When we examine VA, with eyes sensitive to ‘duality’ we will find that it gives us a profound ‘karmic-understanding’, of both- the malefic-patterns of ‘persistent conspiracy of fate’, as well as the benefic-patterns of ‘consistent good-fortune’- that we might have observed many a time, in the field of our mysterious human lives.

It also gives a detailed picture of which spheres of our life have the blessings of Isvara [‘God’] and which suffer from an inherent denial of His grace. Thus, it throws a flood of spiritual and karmic-light on how we may decipher and assimilate our misfortunes & sufferings and thereby even opens the door to spiritual-awakening, which may well come our way, as a result of our deep understanding & assimilation of these unexpected ‘conspiracies & blows of fate’. Great though these blessings are in themselves, yet we must not be under the naive impression that these are the only blessings, that Vedic astrology has got to offer to us.